7 Years Later, Victim Still Awaiting Closure

BARTOW | Bound with duct tape, Kandyce Cruz fought off an armed, masked man who tried to abduct her in a downtown Lakeland parking lot, but the legal aftermath of that night still has a hold on her.

By JASON GEARYTHE LEDGER

BARTOW | Bound with duct tape, Kandyce Cruz fought off an armed, masked man who tried to abduct her in a downtown Lakeland parking lot, but the legal aftermath of that night still has a hold on her. More than seven years later, Reginald Canady, the 29-year-old Lakeland man accused of attacking Cruz, remains unfit to stand trial or be sentenced. He is being held at the Polk County Jail as the criminal-justice system works to determine a final outcome."I'm very frustrated," said Cruz, now a 31-year-old mother of two children. "I feel like I'm stuck in a holding pattern with my life. I haven't had any peace or resolution. Every time, I go to court it drains me physically and mentally."A Sept. 20 hearing before Circuit Judge Glenn Shelby is expected to discuss whether Canady can be restored to competency and, if so, should he be released from jail to receive training.However, Cruz and prosecutors have called Canady dangerous, and they don't think he should be released from jail.Canady's lawyer, Alfreda Coward, disagreed, telling The Ledger in a telephone interview that she didn't consider Canady to be a danger to the community."I don't think so at all," she said.Coward described him as a "timid character" who hasn't caused problems in jail. "He's not aggressive," she said.At a May court hearing, Coward told Shelby that competency training at the jail hasn't been successful, and something new should be tried."It's an injustice what's happening to him," she said in May. "He's sitting in that cell for seven years. Seriously? And everybody thinks that's OK. It isn't. So we have to get him someplace where he can be restored (to competency). Otherwise, we'll keep running around in this same circle."Court-appointed experts say Canady is incompetent because of mental retardation. He can't grasp basic concepts of the legal system, the allegations against him or the possible punishment he faces, according to court testimony and records.Susan Rozelle, a professor at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, said the justice system requires that defendants have an understanding of court proceedings and an ability to participate in their defense."It is essentially about fairness," she said.

HER 'NIGHT TO FIGHT'In the early morning hours of Feb. 19, 2006, Cruz was leaving a downtown Lakeland bar after meeting a friend for drinks. She called her husband, John Cruz, an Auburndale police officer who was on duty.She said she was nervous about walking alone to her Volkswagon Jetta and wanted someone on the phone with her.As she started to get into the car, a man wearing a ski mask and holding a sawed-off shotgun appeared. "He's screaming for me to get out of the car or he is going to shoot me," she said.He pulled her out of the car and put the gun to her head, she said.The cell phone dropped in the struggle, and the connection was lost. John Cruz said the last thing he heard was his wife say "Oh, my God" in a panicked voice. He kept dialing her number, but the phone just kept ringing.Kandyce Cruz said she was fighting with her attacker and told him to take her car."He said he didn't want the car," she said. "He said I needed to shut up, or he was going to shoot me in the head. He had me face-down on the pavement. He was on top of me, and he duct-taped my hands behind my back."The attacker tried to put tape over her eyes, but it didn't completely cover her vision, and she could see that he was pulling her toward a Ford Explorer, she said.Although she felt panicked, Cruz said she was "surprisingly clear of mind." She said a deputy years earlier at Mulberry High School and her father had advised her on paying attention to crucial details during a crisis and staying strong. "My dad always told me to fight, and that's what I did," she said. "It was my night to fight, I guess." The attacker hadn't noticed that she bowed her wrists out a little bit as he bound her, so she had some room to move and was able to break free of her bindings and resist him."He gets me back on the ground. I'm face-up at this point. He straddles over me and starts messing with his belt," she said.Cruz said she pleaded with him to stop: "Please, I have a baby. I just want to go home to my child. Please, don't do this," she recalled saying.He put the gun again to her forehead and "tells me that he'll shoot me in the head," she said.Cruz said she was able to wriggle out from underneath the man, and a passerby heard her screams as she fought with him. The man drove away."It was just by the grace of God that it didn't work out for him," said Cruz. "I caught him off-guard, and I was fighting for my life. I guess he didn't expect that. I got the upper hand."She called 911 and her husband, who also radioed for help and drove to Lakeland to be with her.Lakeland police reports state that Kandyce Cruz was able to provide critical details to help investigators.In particular, she memorized a license plate number as the attacker drove away. Using a computer, police ran combinations of the license plate and discovered it was only one digit different from that of a 1999 Ford Expedition registered to Canady's father and Canady drove, an arrest report states. Police went to the Lakeland house where Canady lived with his parents, and they found the Ford parked outside with the engine still warm, the report states.Inside the vehicle, police found a roll of duct tape similar in color and brand to one left near Cruz's car, a ski mask, condoms, and a sawed-off, 20-gauge shotgun, according to investigative reports.Under questioning, Canady told detectives that he wasn't trying to abduct Cruz, an arrest report states.Canady said the woman stepped in front of his vehicle while crossing the street, and he almost hit her, the report states.Canady "denied trying to abduct the victim, but that his intent was just to scare her, because she had made him mad when she yelled at him," the report states.Cruz denied walking in front of Canady's vehicle or yelling at him.

'A HARD DECISION'Canady previously received competency training in jail and was found competent in 2008. The following year, he accepted a plea agreement where he pleaded guilty to armed kidnapping, aggravated assault and aggravated battery in exchange for 15 years in prison and five years of probation.Cruz thought the agreement was "generous" but didn't object because she wanted the case to move toward a conclusion. "I just wanted to be able to sleep at night and not worry."Before he could be sentenced, Canady again was found incompetent, and questions arose about whether he wanted to withdraw from the plea agreement.Circuit Judge Mark Hofstad ordered in December that Canady should remain in jail because he represents a "substantial, serious and dangerous risk to the community."Canady has no prior criminal history. While in jail, he was charged with scheme to defraud and grand theft in a separate case.An arrest report states Canady took part in a plan with another person outside of jail to provide phone services to inmates.That case is also halted because Canady has been found to be incompetent.A state hospital won't accept Canady because he doesn't have a mental illness.He could have been eligible for competency training at a state facility for mental retardation, but he wasn't determined to be mentally retarded as a child so he doesn't qualify.Coward, Canady's lawyer, told a judge in July that the competency training her client has been receiving in jail isn't working."We are going to have to make a hard decision about what needs to be done," Coward told the judge. "And just continuing (Canady's case) for more evaluations doesn't answer that question. I'm asking this court to do something different that we have not done for the last seven years."Coward told the court that she wasn't able to find a secure treatment facility in Florida willing to take him. She suggested Canady could wear an ankle monitor and seek training at an unsecure treatment facility, or be placed on home detention with an ankle monitor to participate in an outpatient program. Prosecutors have objected to Coward's suggestions.Cruz also doesn't support the idea of Canady being released for treatment."It terrifies me that he might come out and seek out me or my children … I feel some responsibility to make sure that nobody else goes through what I went through," she said.Meanwhile, she attends his court hearings and looks him in the eyes."I want him to know I'm fighting until the bitter end," she said. "I'm not going away."

[ Jason Geary can be reached at jason.geary@theledger.com. ]

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